Rural Philanthropy Toolkit launched to help rural communities create, run, and fund health organizations

The Rural Health Information Hub has launched a Rural Philanthropy Toolkit to help rural communities learn how to plan, create and fund community health programs.

The toolkit includes six detailed modules that break down the process: creating a program, developing it, implementing it, evaluating its effectiveness, planning for long-term sustainability, and best practices. It also includes toolkits with more information on issues such as aging in place, HIV/AIDS, food access, and diabetes.

"The online toolkit was developed through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in partnership with the National Rural Health Association," which has convened an annual philanthropy meeting for the last five years, Bryce Oates reports for The Daily Yonder.

Research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service showed the need for such a toolkit. Rural people, broadly defined, are 19 percent of the population, but rural-based organizations get only 5.5 percent of the real value of domestic grants from large foundations and a little more than 7 percent from smaller foundations. "On average, large foundations awarded $88 per person to non-metro counties, almost half the average provided to organizations in metro counties, according to ERS," Bryce reports. "Rural grants were more likely to be awarded for higher education, the environment and outdoor recreation. Urban organizations, in contrast, received more grants for health, science, technology, arts, culture and humanities."